tressed, and giving him somewhat to drink to revive him, they bound up his wound with his scarf, and urged him to leave the place. On his refusing to do so, they added force to their entreaties, and carried him to his pinnace.

"Divers of his men, besides himself, were wounded, though but one, and he a trumpeter, slain. Many of them got good booty before they left the place. But the wines in a Spanish ship, which they found in the harbour, they took along with them for the relief of their Captain and themselves. They carried off their prize to an island, which they called the Island of Victuals, where they staid two days to cure their wounded men, and refresh themselves in the gardens they found there, abounding with all sorts of roots, fruits, poultry, and other fowls no less strange than delicate."

During their short stay there, an officer belonging to the garrison came to visit them, protesting that his coming was only to see and admire the courage of those who, with so small a force, had made so incredible an attempt. They had reason, however, for believing that his visit was made by the direction of the governor; for he asked them whether the commander was the same Captain Drake who had been on their coast the two preceding years he inquired also whether their arrows, with which many of the Spaniards had been wounded, were poisoned, and how the wounds might be cured. Drake made answer,

"That he was the same Drake they meant; that it was never his custom to poison arrows; that their wounds might be cured with ordinary remedies; and that he wanted only some of that excellent commodity, gold and silver, which that country yielded, for himself and his company; and that he was resolved, by the help of God, to reap some of the golden harvest, which they got out of the earth, and then sent into Spain to trouble all the world.

"To this answer, unlooked for, this gentleman replied, "If he might without offence move such a question, what should then be the cause of our departure from that town at this time, where there was above 360 tonnes of silver ready for the Fleet, and much more gold in value resting in iron chests in the King's Treasure House?'

“But when our Captain had showed him the true cause of his unwilling retreat on board, he acknowledged that we had no less reason in departing than courage in attempting.

“Thus with great favour and courteous entertainment, besides such gifts from the Captain as most contented him, after dinner he was in such sort dismissed to make report of that he had seen, that he protested he was never honoured so much of any in his life."

After a short rest at this place, Drake proceeded to the Isle of Pinos, where he had left his ships under the charge of Captain

Rawse; who, being unwilling to continue the enterprise, now that they had been discovered by the enemy, was remunerated by Drake for his services; and they parted on the 7th of August. The General now dispatched his brother and Ellis Hixon to examine the River Chagre, where he had been the year before, but of which he wished to have some further knowledge. On their return, he departed with his two ships and three pinnaces for Cartagena, where he arrived on the 13th; and the same day took two Spanish ships, one of 240 tons.

Here he came to anchor in seven fathoms water, between the Island of Caresha and St. Barnard's. He led the three pinnaces round the island into the harbour of Cartagena, where, at the very entrance, he found a frigate at anchor, with only one man on board, the rest of the crew having gone ashore to fight about some fair lady. This man inadvertently revealed to Drake that, two hours before, there had passed by them a pinnace, with sail set, and rowing as fast as they could; that the men on board asked them whether there had been any English or French there lately? and upon being told that none had been seen, they bid them look to themselves.

From this account, combined with other circumstances, Drake perceived that he was discovered: but as he learned from the same man that there was a large ship from Seville which was preparing to sail on the morrow for St. Domingo, he resolved to capture it; and this he did with little difficulty. As the presence of his ships was now known at two of the most important places on the coast, Drake abandoned his intended attack in this quarter; and turned his attention to opening a communication with the Symerons but perceiving that the success of all his future efforts must depend on the efficient state of his pinnaces, and that he had not a sufficient number of sailors to man them fully, in addition to the crews necessary for his two ships, he came to the bold determination of destroying one of the two, the Swan. But knowing the affection of the men for their ships, he was aware that some artifice must be used to accomplish this. He therefore sent for Thomas Moone, the carpenter of the Swan, and taking him into his cabin, and speaking to him privately, ordered him, in the middle of the second watch, to go down secretly into the well of the ship, and with a large spike-gimlet to bore three

holes, as near to the keel as he could, laying something against them, that the rushing of the water might not be heard.

Thomas Moone, although not without much dismay and unwillingness, consented to do so, and kept his promise.

The next morning, August 15, Drake went out early in his pinnace fishing; and, after inviting his brother to accompany him, inquired with a careless air, "Why their ship was so deep in the water?" Upon this the steward, going hastily down, found himself at once up to the waist in water; and in great alarm cried out that "the ship was sinking!

Immediate recourse was had to the pumps; but, of course, to no purpose: and, after many hours' labour, the crew willingly acceded to Drake's proposal, set the poor Swan on fire, and went on board the pinnace.

The next day they resolved to seek out a place in the Sound of Darien where they might leave their ship at anchor, concealed and safe; and by thus leading the Spaniards to believe that they had quitted the coast, might the better prosecute their design with the pinnaces.

Accordingly, having reached the Sound in five days, Drake selected a convenient spot; and, having cleared away the trees and bushes, and erected huts, they remained here fifteen days; cleaned their vessels, and took in stores of provisions, which were plentiful. To fill up the time, one half the men were allowed to amuse themselves alternate days with shooting at the butt, quoits, and other sports, whilst the rest worked.

On the 5th of September, Drake, leaving the ship and one of the pinnaces with his brother, proceeded with the other two pinnaces to the Rio Grande. Here, cruising about between Cartagena and Tolon, he took six frigates laden with hogs, hams, and maize; and at the end of three days, having arrived at Port Plenty, in the Island of Pinos, he resolved to go with three pinnaces to Cartagena, leaving the rest of the men under the command of his brother, John Drake, who had succeeded in establishing a communication with the Symerons.

On the 16th October he anchored within sight of Cartagena ; but deemed it not prudent to land: and, on the 20th, the Spaniards sent out two frigates without any cargo in them, evidently in the hope that Drake would take and man them, and thus weaken

his small force by dividing it: however, he was not to be thus entrapped; but burnt one of them and sunk the other, in sight of two full-manned frigates, which came out, but were soon forced to retire. He now sprung on shore from one of his pinnaces, in the face of all the troops, which were assembled on the hills and hovering in the woods, but were afraid to come within range of the shot of his pinnaces.

"To leap upon an enemy's coast," says Johnson, "in sight of a superior force, only to show how little they were feared, was an act that would in these times meet with little applause; nor can the general be seriously commended, or rationally vindicated, who exposes his person to destruction, and, by consequence, his expedition to miscarriage, only for the pleasure of an idle insult, an insignificant bravado. All that can be urged in his defence is, that perhaps it might contribute to heighten the esteem of his followers; as few men, especially of that class, are philosophical enough to state the exact limits of prudery and bravery; or not to be dazzled with an intrepidity, howimproperly soever exerted. It may be added, that perhaps the Spaniards, whose notions of courage are sufficiently romantic, might look upon him as a more formidable enemy, and yield more easily to a hero of whose fortitude they had so high an idea."

On the 27th of November they returned in their pinnaces to the ships, where they found everything in good order, but received the heavy news of the death of John Drake, and another young man called Richard Allen, who were both slain in attempting to board a Spanish vessel.

"The manner of their death was this. When they saw the frigate at sea, the company were very importunate on John Drake to give chace and set upon this frigate, which they deemed had been a fit booty for them, but he told them that they wanted weapons to assail: they knew not how the frigate was provided; they had their boat laden with planks to finish what his brother had commanded. But this would not satisfy them: they still urged him with words and supposals; 'If ye will needs (said he) adventure, it shall never be said that I will be hindmost, neither shall you report to my brother that you lost your voyage by any cowardice you found in me.'

"Thereupon every man shifted as he might for the time, and heaving the planks overboard, they took such few weapons as they had: namely, a broken-pointed rapier, one old fisgee, and a rusty calliver: John Drake took the rapier, and made a gauntlet of his pillow: Richard Allen took the fisgee, both standing at the head of their pinnace, called the Lion: Robert Cluich took the calliver, and so boarded. But they found the frigate armed round about with a close fight of hides, full of pikes and callivers, which were discharged in their faces, and deadly wounded those that were in the foreship: John Drake in his belly, and Richard Allen in his head. But notwithstanding their wounds, they, with care, shifted off the pinnace and got clear of the

frigate, and with all haste recovered their ship; where, within an hour after this, this young man of great hope ended his days, greatly lamented of all the company."

Early in January, six of the company fell sick, and died within two or three days; and at this time there were thirty men ill of a calenture, occasioned by a sudden change from cold to heat, or from the salt or brackish water procured at the mouth of the river, the seamen having been too lazy to go farther up.

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Among the rest, Joseph Drake, another of our Captain's brothers, died in our Captain's arms of the same disease, of which that the cause might be the better discerned, and consequently remedied to the relief of others, by our Captain's appointment he was ript open by the surgeon, who found his liver swollen, his heart as it were sodden, and his gutts all fair. This was the first and last experiment that our Captain made of anatomy in this voyage.

"The surgeon that cut him up overlived him not past four days, although he were not toucht with that sickness of which he had been recovered a month before, but only of an overbold practice which he must needs make upon himself, by receiving an over-strong purgation of his own device, after which, once taken, he never spake; nor did his boy recover the health which he lost by tasting it till he saw England. Altogether twenty-eight of our men died here."

Drake now made his arrangements for proceeding by land to Panama. They set out on Shrove Tuesday the 3rd of February, leaving only a few sound men to secure the ships and tend the prisoners. They were in all forty-eight, being eighteen English, and the rest Symerons. In a few days they reached Venta Cruz.

The King, or Chief of these people, dwelt in a city sixteen leagues south-east of Panama, and was able to raise seventeen hundred fighting men. The towns consisted of about sixty families; in which, to use Prince's words, "the people lived cleanly and civilly."

Drake, having been informed by the Symerons that numerous recoes conveying treasure would now be coming across the isthmus from Panama, or from Venta Cruz to Nombre de Dios, set out for the purpose of waylaying them on their route. He arrived, on the 11th of February, at the top of a very high hill; on the very summit of which grew a tree of great size, from which both the North and South Seas could be seen. Here one of the chief Symerons, taking Drake by the hand, desired him to ascend "that goodlie and great high tree," as the manuscript